The present invention relates to a galvanic element in the form of a flat, high power cell, especially a metal-air-cell; the flat cell is cooled with cooling water, and can be assembled to a battery of a plurality of cells; furthermore, the flat cell comprises bipolar electrodes, with a consumable metal electrode in flat form as an anode, a cathode, especially an oxygen electrode, and a liquid electrolyte.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,152,492 discloses a water-cooled battery comprising a plurality of bipolar electrodes. The bipolar electrodes are assembled into modules, and are stacked in an arrangement parallel to one another. Cooling medium water flows around the individual modules. A drawback to this heretofore known battery is that a direct cooling of the individual bipolar electrodes is not effected, so that dissipation of heat is only effected for the overall module. Thus, the same effect is achieved as is known with galvanic elements for cooling the electrolyte. Such a proposal also does not suffice for flat, high power cells, and in particular does not permit the electrochemical processes at the site of the reaction itself to be affected by control of the heat.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a flat, high power cell of the aforementioned general type in which the temperature of each electrode can be individually controlled, especially cooled, directly by a medium which is independent of the liquid electrolyte.